Mumbai

Even though the government is patting its own back on non-performing assets (NPAs) recovery made during the first half of this financial year from corporate accounts in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the retrieval has been declining quarter-on-quarter.

The final decision on transferring a part of the excess reserves to the government has to be that of the Reserve Bank (RBI) alone and any attempt to take away its autonomy could pose a risks to the economy, warns former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu.

The comments come wi­thin two days of ex- RBI governor Raghuram Ra­jan cautioning that tra­n­s­fer of the reserves may bri­ng down the rating of the RBI.

Amid reports of rising rural distress, a report has expressed concerns on an over 5 per cent dip in sowing for winter cr­o­ps, which account for the bulk 40 per cent of the annual farm output.

Unless the sowing im­proves from now on, there will be adverse imp­act on various aspects, including rural consu­mption, Crisil warned in a report on Wednesday.

As of December 14, by when 81 per cent of the sowing gets compl­e­t­ed, Crisil said there was a 5.25 per cent drop in sowing to 476 lakh hec­ta­res as against 502.5 lakh hectares in the ye­ar-ago period.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has said that her ministry is in the process of getting Jinnah House, the sea-facing Mumbai bungalow of Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah, transferred in its name.

In a letter to city BJP legislator Mangal Prabhat Lodha, Swaraj also said her ministry will refurbish the bungalow on the lines of Hyderabad House in Delhi. Lodha had written to Swaraj on October 5 requesting that Jinnah

Volatility in the market is likely to go up in the run-up to the 2019 general elections and peak once the results are announced. Traders in the equity derivative market are also bracing for the event by adopting different option strategies.

Despite the pace of highways projects undertaken by state-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) picking up in the last three years, it is likely to remain short by 33-37 per cent of its FY19 target of completing 6,000 km, says Icra.

With a strong unexecuted pipeline and concerted efforts on right of way, the NHAI is on a strong footing and is set to witness sustained growth in execution in FY2019, the highest ever over the last one decade (FY2010- FY2019), the agency said in a statement issued on Monday.

Air India’s narrow-bo­dy pilots union ICPA has blamed capacity deficiency vis-a-vis comp­e­t­i­tors for its plunging domest­ic market share while seeki­ng a long-term plan for airc­raft fleet expansion at the carrier.

In a letter to civil aviat­i­on minister Suresh Prabhu last week, the Indian comm­ercial pilots association (ICPA) also lamented that while other domestic carrie­rs have placed huge airc­r­a­ft order with both Airbus and Boeing, Air India will be inducting only five pl­a­n­es in its fleet going forward.

The year 2018 will be remembered as a challenging year for the Indian rupee that depreciated by nearly 15 per cent against the dollar compared with a goldilocked 2017 that had seen the rupee appreciate 5.5 per cent.

For most part of this year, volatile crude oil prices and trade war between the US and China weighed on the rupee. In addition, higher interest rates in the US and a stronger dollar hit emerging market economies, including India.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will file an appropriate response to the Supreme Court’s notice to him on a plea seeking annulment of his election to the state Assembly for alleged non-disclosure of pending criminal cases against him in his nomination papers, the CMO said on Thursday.